The TSA is testing expert security lanes for travelers who know the drill, and slow lanes for large families with lots of baggage who don't want to be rushed.

Airline fliers are helping to subsidize those who fly private jets, because the privates avoid many taxes and fees. Feeling the pressure, airlines and FAA want to establish a more equitable fee structure.

Delta will rebate some of the $25 second-bag fees they charged. Apparently they started charging fees on pre-existing tickets, where no such fee existed when the customer purchased the ticket. And folks complained.

The airline's contract of carriage makes fees effective on the day they are announced. But this doesn't mean they have to be retroactive to previously-purchased tickets.

As Continental switches from Starteam to Star Alliance, and from partnerships with Delta and Northwest to United, customers have questions. The Houston Chronicle published a Q&A to address them.

Here's a copy of United's email to its Mileage Plus members regarding their "global cooperation".

First and foremost, this partnership will include new frequent flier reciprocity that will enable you to earn miles when flying on either airline and redeem awards on both carriers. Travel on either carrier will count toward earning elite status. Similarly, members of either airline's airport lounge program will have access to both Continental's Presidents Club network and United's Red Carpet Club(R) lounges.

Read the entire letter below.

Continental Airlines will join Star Alliance, says a Dallas News report. Continental considered merging with United recently, and backed off, perhaps because of the concern that the merger would be nixed by anti-trust regulators as a past merger between United and US Airways had been. Northwest and Delta are currently merging, which may have discomfited Continental, a member of the Skyteam partnership with them.

Star Alliance is a partnership of 23 national airlines and 3 regional airlines, offering code-sharing, and pooled privileges for the airlines various affinity clubs. Mileage points can be earned and used across the various partners. Passengers who have reached the "Star Gold" level in their airline's mileage club can make use of lounges before international flights, and are boarded before other coach passengers (but after First Class or higher-privileged members).

Here's a report on the various people who are exempt from bag-check fees. Before they instituted their fees, United wrote me (and a zillion other Premere Executive members) to assure me that I could still check three bags for free.

The president of the Air Transport Association says that fuel costs account for 73% of the average airline ticket.

Southwest Airlines, the only big U.S. carrier that's still profitable, may expand its fleet next year as competitors shrink operations to blunt surging fuel bills. More at Bloomberg.

One of the reasons Southwest has done so well is that it negotiated fuel delivery contracts at a fixed price, five years in advance. As these contracts start to run out, the airline will feel more pressure, but right now it's flying high.

Survey publisher J.D. Power has released its Airline Satisfaction Study.

Expensive fuel makes less-than-full flights an economic disaster for the airline. Airlines are cancelling less-full flights or moving smaller aircraft onto those routes. This means you'll have to plan farther ahead for your flight, as there won't be any surplus of seats. Using your mileage club and online seat-selection tools becomes more critical if you don't want to be stuck in a bad seat all day. The lack of available capacity will make discounts rare.

Over the past few weeks carriers all over the globe have been taking the scissors to their networks, with the US majors making the most dramatic cuts so far. "It is the first thing to do, we must apply jointly and collectively a discipline [on capacity]," said Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman of Air France-KLM, speaking during the IATA Chief Executive Forum in Istanbul. "We at Air France-KLM are looking at adapting ­capacity for the winter season and summer 2009. But as an ­industry we have to show strict discipline. If not it will be a disaster for the whole industry."

More of the quoted story at FlightGlobal.

The United States Department of Transportation publishes its Air Travel Consumer Reports here. Is that airline really as bad as you think?